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Infinti Turns Camera Photos into Postcards

Media Morph: Connecting Mobile to the Mail

WHAT IT IS: To launch the Infiniti G convertible, the automaker tapped into the way people use phones as cameras and married that with the open feeling of driving a convertible, launching an SMS promotion based on its "Own the Sky" integrated campaign. Users were invited to snap pictures of the sky for a chance to win a Bose sound dock system.

HOW IT WORKS: The SMS link took users to a landing page, where, to enter the contest, they supplied their cellphone numbers and e-mailed the picture. Then they received a text message reminding them to complete their photo entry by supplying Infiniti with their contact info. A few days later, contestants received a snail-mail postcard displaying the photo they shot, along with a list of their nearby Infiniti dealers. From the campaign landing page, users could also choose to request a brochure.

RESULTS: While OMD, Infiniti's media-buying agency, declined to say how many consumers requested an Infiniti dealer to contact them through the three-and-a-half-month campaign, the cost-per-lead request was 200% cheaper than those captured by the best-performing display campaign. The number of impressions served being equal, SMS also netted four times more lead requests than display.

LESSONS: SMS is a viral medium because texts are easy to forward; 19% of the traffic to the landing site was generated by people forwarding the SMS message. For every person requesting a brochure, three entered the photo contest. What this says is marketers can drive engagement not only by offering an incentive but also inviting the audience to engage interactively with the medium. "When the audience interacts, the brand starts to create an interesting conversation rather than a push -- and that plays a huge part in organically increasing audience engagement," said Alec Andronikov, head of Movoxx, the SMS ad network behind the campaign.